'Occupy' protesters disrupt Karl Rove at Hopkins

About 15 people asked to leave JHU speech

some forcibly removed

About 15 protesters were asked to leave a speech by Karl Rove at Johns Hopkins University after staging "organized disruption," a university official said.

Some protesters were forcibly removed from the auditorium, said spokeswoman Tracey A. Reeves. The protesters were not believed to be Hopkins students, she said.

They were affiliated with the Baltimore offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Shortly after 10 p.m. the group, which goes by the name Occupy Baltimore, shared via Twitter a six-minute YouTube video of the incident.

In the video, beginning at 1:47, the protesters shout, "Mic check," followed by a call-and-response phrase: "Karl Rove is the architect of occupy Iraq, is the architect of occupy Afghanistan."

"Here's the deal, if you believe in free speech … then you demonstrate it by shutting up and waiting until the Q and A session," Rove responds from the stage. His reply is greeted with clapping and a standing ovation from the crowd.

A few moments later, Rove says, "You can go ahead and stand in line and have the courage to ask any damn question you want or you can continue to show that you are a buffoon."

After they chant "occupy America," Rove counters the protesters by saying, "Who gave you the right to occupy America? Nobody."

Near the end of the approximately four minutes of commotion shown in the video, the protesters begin repeating, "We are the 99 percent."